Interfacing MSP430G2553 with a 16x2 LCD Display in 4 Bit mode - Trouble Displaying Characters

Having the waitstates listed in the datasheet between the instructions is very important. Look at the given delays at startup:

And you should also have a look at the required delays for the different signals. Take a scope and connect it to your control lines. There needs to be a minimum enable high time for example. Or the time between providing the data and toggling the enable pin.

Dennis

Thanks for the information.  Are those delays a minimum? For example if I used a delay of 5ms between each (slightly longer than the longest time) will that be acceptable? Or does it expect the information at those times exactly.  

I implemented the delays using the __delay_cycles() function using the clock cycle as a reference for the time that I wanted to wait between enables.  

-Alex

Waiting a little bit longer is no problem.

Dennis

Perfect, solved the problem. With some more refinement the code works great now, thanks for the help.

Also a semi facepalm moment when I realized I hadn't connected the msp430 dev board's ground to the ground I was using for the lcd. When it was logic 1 being output from the board it was only seeing 1.7 volts on the pin.

-Alex

*** happens ;-)